Nation That Approves Of Torture No Longer Great

Several hundred years ago our forefathers revolted against King George to establish a democracy with new ideals and new freedoms -- the start of a good and great nation. Recently, those ideals and freedoms were reversed by our president and our spineless Congress. We now have a new King George and no one is revolting.

We do not have to worry about Osama Bin Laden winning his war. He has already won. We have capitulated by allowing our fear of him to change the very basic ideals that we have held for hundreds of years. I'm sure even he never imagined that he would be able to so completely defeat us.

A long list of CIA and military leaders sent an extremely moving letter to Congress to plead with them to block the proposed changes to our established laws and guidelines about our treatment of prisoners.

Although they mentioned the moral issues that concerned them, that was not the major thrust of their letter. The main subject of their letter was to give their determination that torture was an ineffective way to obtain information and it only created a greater danger to our intelligence operatives and our soldiers when they might become prisoners. This letter was in addition to the similar letter that had been submitted by Colin Powell -- another expert in the field of interrogation.

But this administration does not listen to the experts. Many supporters of Bush speak of his steadfastness, and that is certainly true. He is absolutely incapable of recognizing his mistakes, therefore he does not change his course. This is not a strength. It is a fatal flaw that has resulted in thousands of deaths, a huge deficit that will affect our future generations, and the decay of our standing in the world as the country that has stood for liberty and justice for all.

We have given unprecedented power to this president.

As someone once said, "In Germany, when they first came for the Communists, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then when they came for the Jews, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then when they came for the trade unionists, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then when they came for the Catholics, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me -- and by that time there was no one left to speak up."